Irwin, Bonita

ORAL HISTORY OF BONITA IRWIN
Interviewed and filmed by Keith McDaniel
August 31, 2011
Mr. McDaniel: This is Keith McDaniel, and today is the last day of August, 2011, August 31st, 2011, and I am at the home of Bonita Irwin, and Miss Irwin, now what community is this? This isn’t Dyllis, is it? Mrs. Irwin: This is Dyllis. Mr. McDaniel: This is the Dyllis community, right outside of Oak Ridge, between Oak Ridge and Harriman. You’ve got a Harriman address, though, don’t you? Mrs. Irwin: Sugar Grove Valley. Mr. McDaniel: Sugar Grove Valley. Mrs. Irwin: A Harriman address. Mr. McDaniel: We’re out in the country, aren’t we? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, we are, and I love it. Mr. McDaniel: Well, good. Well, speaking of the country, let’s kind of go back to the very beginning of your story. Tell me where you were born and raised and went to school, and something about your family. Mrs. Irwin: I was born in the Wheat community, and raised in the Wheat community; went to school twelve years at Wheat High School and graduated there. Mr. McDaniel: Where was your home in the Wheat community? Where was it located? Mrs. Irwin: It was not too far from Bear Creek. Mr. McDaniel: And your mother and father, now how did they end up in Wheat? Mrs. Irwin: They used to live over Mount Pisgah, where the church is. Mr. McDaniel: Right, over near –
Mrs. Irwin: My grandfather owned five thousand acres in there – Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Mrs. Irwin: – and he gave that land there where Mount Pisgah Church is. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, really? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm. Mr. McDaniel: How did he end up with five thousand acres? Mrs. Irwin: I really don’t know. He must have inherited it somewhere. Mr. McDaniel: Sure. So your family, generations go back to this area, right? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. Mr. McDaniel: So, you grew up over in Wheat, and how many brothers and sisters did you have? Mrs. Irwin: I had one brother and two sisters. Mr. McDaniel: Now, tell us a little bit about Wheat at that time. I mean what was it like when you were a young person, in about, let’s say, what years would that be? Mrs. Irwin: Well, I was born in 1920, so that makes me ninety-one. Mr. McDaniel: Ninety-one, there you go. Mrs. Irwin: It was a happy place. I mean everyone got along good, and we had all conveniences that we felt like that we needed at that time. Mr. McDaniel: Now, about how many people lived in Wheat, or in that area? Mrs. Irwin: Well, it’s estimated around a thousand. Mr. McDaniel: Around a thousand? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: Wasn’t there some industry there, or what was the main industry in the area? Was it agricultural, was it farming? Mrs. Irwin: It was all farming. Mr. McDaniel: All farming? Mrs. Irwin: It was known for its peach orchards. We had six in that area. One of them had over three thousand trees – Mr. McDaniel: Wow. Mrs. Irwin: – and then the Dyllis peach orchard was larger than that one. Mr. McDaniel: I guess that was a small community – a thousand people – relatively small. I guess when it was peach harvest time, everybody went to work, didn’t they? Mrs. Irwin: Everybody went to work. Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about that. Can you remember the first time you worked in harvesting peaches? Mrs. Irwin: I really didn’t work a lot in the peaches. I always stayed home and done the cooking and the canning, and my father was the foreman over one orchard, and he hired his people to pick the peaches, and then they took them down to the shed and graded them. And it’s mostly women that graded the peaches. They got them in baskets and sent them by train from Dyllis. There was a shed up there that they took them to and they shipped them out by train. Mr. McDaniel: Did your father do that all year long, or did he do other things, like when it wasn’t peach time? Mrs. Irwin: Oh yes, he farmed, he run a big farm. Mr. McDaniel: Okay. Let’s continue on the peach story, though. But that didn’t last forever, because wasn’t there a big peach blight that kind of took out the orchards? Tell me a little bit about that. Wasn’t that in the ’30s? Mrs. Irwin: In the late ’30s. Mr. McDaniel: In the late ’30s, right. Mrs. Irwin: But there were still a few peaches left. Mr. McDaniel: Right, but this whole area, there were a lot of peach orchards in this area, wasn’t there? I know there were some over in Roane County and Kingston. Mrs. Irwin: There was Kingston.
Mr. McDaniel: So you grew up there on the farm in Wheat, about a thousand people, most of the folks were farmers. Was there any stores or businesses that you can remember? Tell me about that. Mrs. Irwin: Yes, we had three stores, and a post office, and a Masonic Hall. It has the Eastern Star, too. And then the college. Mr. McDaniel: We’ll talk about the college here in a minute, but there was a college there. Did you go to Knoxville when you were a young person? Did you ever go to Knoxville? Mrs. Irwin: Well, we went to Knoxville quite often. Of course, we had a T-Model, and it took us all day – Mr. McDaniel: To go to Knoxville and come back, I guess. Mrs. Irwin: – to go to Knoxville and shop a little and come back home. Mr. McDaniel: Now, how did you get there? What road did you take to Knoxville? Mrs. Irwin: Right up through Robertsville and up to Clinton, Clinton Highway. Mr. McDaniel: It was closer to go that way than it would be to go down to 70 and go up that way, I suppose. Mrs. Irwin: I suppose so. They always took near cuts.
Mr. McDaniel: Sure. Oh sure, of course. Well, tell me about school. Tell me about the school in Wheat. Mrs. Irwin: We had a good school. We had students that come there from after they built the dormitories. We had students that come there from out of state to get a good education. We had them, I know, from Virginia and Kentucky and Florida. Mr. McDaniel: Now, was this a public school, or was it a private school? Mrs. Irwin: It was a public school. Mr. McDaniel: It was a public school, but students would come in from out of state? Mrs. Irwin: The school buses ran, well, the school buses ran all the way down this way and down Sugar Grove Valley, Bethel Valley, and East Fork Valley, and brought students in. Mr. McDaniel: So, the school was for this area. Mrs. Irwin: Yes, it was. Mr. McDaniel: I mean for the Wheat, and just the country right around Wheat here. I guess up in Robertsville and those areas that is now Oak Ridge, they had their own school systems. Mrs. Irwin: They did. They was our rivals in basketball. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, that was the big rivals in basketball, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, it was. Mr. McDaniel: So, what did you do in school? I mean what were your favorite subjects, and do you remember any teachers or principals specifically? Mrs. Irwin: Oh, yes. We had geometry, and English, of course, language, and home economics. Well, anything that a school offers, we had it. Mr. McDaniel: Sure. Why was it so good?
Mrs. Irwin: We had good teachers. Mr. McDaniel: And why did it attract good teachers? Did somebody actively go out and find good teachers, or did it just have a reputation? Mrs. Irwin: Well, I guess it had a reputation, and some of the teachers lived there in the community, too. Mr. McDaniel: And so this was, I guess, first grade through high school.
Mrs. Irwin: Yes, it was. Mr. McDaniel: About how many students were there? Mrs. Irwin: I’d say around three hundred. Mr. McDaniel: That’s what I would think, about three hundred or so. Mrs. Irwin: I can think of the lunchroom, how many they had, and so on. That’s was the elementary and high school together. Mr. McDaniel: Where did you go to church? Mrs. Irwin: I went to church at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Wheat. Mr. McDaniel: Where was that located? Mrs. Irwin: It was located – there’s a monument where it was located, where they made the road to Lenoir City and it’s up on the left as you go – Mr. McDaniel: You’re coming from Oak Ridge and you curve around, that monument is right there on your left, isn’t it, like if you curve around to go towards Lenoir City, that monument’s on the left. Mrs. Irwin: Yes, it is, and the church actually sat where the road is. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, okay. I see. Now, were there other churches? Mrs. Irwin: There was George Jones church that still stands, and the Methodist church burned, and they took Sunday about with the Presbyterian church so they could use the building. Mr. McDaniel: So, this was in the 1920s, 1930s, when you were growing up in Wheat, going to school, people were active, the peach business was still pretty good, and so I guess it was, I mean a lot of people say, “Well, I didn’t know I was poor,” you know, “We were poor, but I didn’t know it.” You know, did you have everything you needed? Mrs. Irwin: That’s right, everybody was about on the same level and we enjoyed living there. It was a good community. It was known as the model community. Mr. McDaniel: Now, oftentimes, in little communities like that, you’ll have one or two land barons or tycoons or people that have a lot of money. Did you have any folks like that in Wheat? Mrs. Irwin: If we did, they didn’t show it. [laughter]
Mr. McDaniel: [laughter] Oh, I see. Okay. All right. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: Talk a little bit about the college. Tell me something about the college. When did it come, and what was it about? Mrs. Irwin: Well, the college came there in 1886. It was a forerunner of the seminary, and then the first school over there was Robertson School, and they had a textbook and the Bible. That’s what they taught, and they taught it by – they called it ‘aloud school’ because they taught it orally, you know? Mr. McDaniel: Right. Mrs. Irwin: And then, the seminary, and it was the forerunner of Roane College. Mr. McDaniel: So, there was the Robertson School, and then the seminary? Mrs. Irwin: Uh-huhn. Mr. McDaniel: Now, where was that located? Mrs. Irwin: The college? It was up on the hill from the George Jones Baptist Church that’s still standing. Mr. McDaniel: Right. It was up past it, if you were going towards it from Blair Road. Mrs. Irwin: It was. Mr. McDaniel: It was back up in that direction. Mrs. Irwin: It was on the hill, and they carried the water for the college from the spring. That spring is still there.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, how many students were there, and were these students that – did they have dormitories? They came and lived there? Mrs. Irwin: They batched or they lived with families, you know, and my dad went to college there. Mr. McDaniel: So, it was Robertson School, then it was a seminary, and then it turned into Roane College, is that correct? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm. Mr. McDaniel: What was the difference? Did it just become not a church school anymore and then just a general college? Mrs. Irwin: General college. Mr. McDaniel: How long did it stay there? Mrs. Irwin: It stayed there from 1886 until 1908, and at that time, Roane County had taken over the land and they built the Wheat High School at that time, but they continued to have classes at the Roane College until 1916. Mr. McDaniel: Okay. Did it just dwindle down? I mean, is that what happened? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. But I can remember the reunions when I was just a child. They’d come from everywhere back to the homecomings, and I have pictures of the homecomings, and so on. Mr. McDaniel: Okay, so you graduated high school. What year did you graduate high school? Mrs. Irwin: 1940. Mr. McDaniel: Okay, so you were still living at home, I imagine.
Mrs. Irwin: I was. Mr. McDaniel: And then 1942 rolled around, and they came and said, “You gotta get out.” Mrs. Irwin: Yes, get up and go. Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about that. Mrs. Irwin: It was bad. It was bad, because they didn’t give us very much time. Mr. McDaniel: Do you remember about when you got the notice? Late fall, wasn’t it? Maybe around Thanksgiving, maybe November, or something like that? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm. It made it awful hard on people, and at that time, gas was rationed and it made it awful hard on people that didn’t have a way to get somewhere to try to find somewhere to live. Mr. McDaniel: Sure and, obviously, the government came in for the Manhattan Project and took the land. Now, how much land did you all have, and tell me about your house, and any outbuildings and things such as that, that you had to just leave? Mrs. Irwin: I don’t know exactly how much land there was but a good size farm. Mr. McDaniel: It had barns, I’m sure you had a barn, and outbuildings, and things such as that. Mrs. Irwin: Chicken houses. Mr. McDaniel: Right, and your house, tell me about it, the house that you grew up in, you had to leave. Mrs. Irwin: It was a very nice house. We had three bedrooms, and a kitchen and dining room and it was a fairly nice house. Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about the reaction that not only your parents had, specifically, but tell me kind of the reaction of the community when this happened. Mrs. Irwin: They was devastated, didn’t know which way to go, but everybody kind of settled down and they had a banquet, the last banquet that they had. The speaker was David Lilienthal, and he talked about Wheat being a good community, and so on, and then the Knoxville Journal at the same banquet, he talked about Wheat, and the New York Times gave an article on Wheat. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Now, when was this banquet? Was this before you left? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. Mr. McDaniel: Okay, so it was kind of a community banquet before everybody had to leave? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: How much did your father get for his house and property?
Mrs. Irwin: [laughter] Now, I know, where I was born, and we still owned that – Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right? Mrs. Irwin: – yeah, but we had moved to a larger farm because there wasn’t enough farming land there to support his family, and where I was born, he had thirty-five acres of just trucking land and some of it was in beautiful pines. And he had a house; a doctor used to live there. He had a good house, and it had a little office building out from it, and then it had a well house and a barn. He got eight hundred dollars for it. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Mrs. Irwin: That’s right. Mr. McDaniel: Even back then, that wasn’t much. Mrs. Irwin: They robbed us. They robbed us. Mr. McDaniel: My goodness. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: There was nothing you could do, was there? Mrs. Irwin: That wasn’t enough to buy another place, so we moved up where Heartland Estates is now, at that farmhouse there, and he farmed that. Of course, I was married at that time. Mr. McDaniel: When did you get married? Mrs. Irwin: I got married in 1940 right after I graduated. Mr. McDaniel: Right after you graduated. Was it a local boy? Mrs. Irwin: Oh, yes. He had had to move from Norris when they built the dam up there. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, my. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: So, there were a number of families that has moved from Norris just six years earlier down in this area, and then it hit them again. Mrs. Irwin: Right. There was a lot of them in our community. Mr. McDaniel: I imagine that would kind of make you distrustful of the government, wouldn’t it? [laughter] Mrs. Irwin: [laughter] Yeah, it would. It would. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, man. So, what did they tell you about why they needed your property? Mrs. Irwin: They didn’t tell us anything. I mean it was top secret. The government just needed it for a war purpose. Mr. McDaniel: And that was it? Mrs. Irwin: That was it. Mr. McDaniel: If you felt like you weren’t getting enough money for your property, was there anything you could do? Mrs. Irwin: Well, there was some that sued, but they didn’t do any good. Mr. McDaniel: Right. It was probably more trouble than what it was worth. Mrs. Irwin: So my dad just left it alone. Mr. McDaniel: Did he ever get over it? Mrs. Irwin: No. No. My mother had died in ’35. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, I was fourteen when she died. And at Wheat High School, we had a good sports program – football and basketball – and I played basketball. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, did you? Mrs. Irwin: I loved it. Mr. McDaniel: Did you? Mrs. Irwin: I loved it. I still do. Mr. McDaniel: Did you go to college or take any college – Mrs. Irwin: No, I didn’t. Mr. McDaniel: – courses after – you got married? Mrs. Irwin: I got married. Mr. McDaniel: You got married, and started having a family, I imagine. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah, I had a son, and thirteen years later I had a daughter. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right? Okay, there you go. Now, what did your husband do? Mrs. Irwin: He was with the Physics Department at Oak Ridge. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, was he? Mrs. Irwin: ORNL. Mr. McDaniel: But he wasn’t doing that when you got married? Mrs. Irwin: No. No, he was working with TVA at that time. He was a foreman with the TVA when they was clearing land for the dams. Mr. McDaniel: Interesting. I’m doing a project right now on Granger County’s history, and they came in and put in Cherokee Dam in 1940, and flooded so much, and those people up there are still mad about it. Mrs. Irwin: I can imagine.
Mr. McDaniel: You know, it was their ancestral homes – Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Absolutely. Mr. McDaniel: – and it’s kind of the same way with Wheat, you know? Mrs. Irwin: But they did pay for their land. Mr. McDaniel: Right. I asked you if your father ever got over it; did you ever get over it? Mrs. Irwin: No. Mr. McDaniel: No? Mrs. Irwin: I’m not over it yet. Mr. McDaniel: Are you not? Mrs. Irwin: No. Mr. McDaniel: You just felt it was wrong, huhn? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, I did. Well, now, we was willing if it would help in the war effort and to bring our boys back home. We had a hundred and fifty-seven boys out of our community to go. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Mrs. Irwin: Nine of them lost their lives. Mr. McDaniel: Really, a hundred and fifty-seven out of your community? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm. Mr. McDaniel: My goodness. Mrs. Irwin: Yes. Mr. McDaniel: Well, I guess it was a bittersweet opportunity then, I guess. Mrs. Irwin: It was. Mr. McDaniel: Yeah. So, oh my goodness. Well, tell me more about Wheat. Mrs. Irwin: When they got a chance to come home, they didn’t have a home to come to. Mr. McDaniel: I guess not. Mrs. Irwin: I mean, that was bad, too. Mr. McDaniel: Yeah. Well, tell me more about Wheat. Tell me about things that I’ve not asked about that you want to talk about. Mrs. Irwin: Well, we always had good neighbors. We’d gather in – my dad made a goal for us and put it on the side of the barn to shoot basketball, and we’d have groups to come in and play, and late in the afternoon, a lot of times, our neighbors would gather in and we’d play till all hours. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Play till dark, huhn? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah, and then we always went swimming together. Mr. McDaniel: Where’d you go swimming? Mrs. Irwin: In East Fork Creek. [laughter] Mr. McDaniel: In East Fork Creek? Okay. That was back when you could swim in these waters, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Oh yeah. Yeah, I wouldn’t dare now. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, my. Mrs. Irwin: Where we lived, the Indians used to be in here, you know? And there was a little knoll down at the end, just before you’d get down to the creek, and we’d find arrowheads in there. Mr. McDaniel: Really? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm, and that’s where Bear Creek and East Fork Creek runs together. Mr. McDaniel: Okay. All right. So, I guess when you were a kid, this whole area was your playground, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Oh, yeah. Mr. McDaniel: You’d play out in the woods and just – Mrs. Irwin: Yeah, you’d be afraid of coyotes now. Mr. McDaniel: Oh yeah, that’s true. That’s true. My goodness. Did you hear about that bear in Oak Ridge this week? There was a bear, a little baby bear – Mrs. Irwin: I did. Mr. McDaniel: – got hit on the Turnpike. Mrs. Irwin: Well, there was three coyotes right up here, just past this cornfield, the other day. My neighbor shot one of them. Mr. McDaniel: Did he? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm. Mr. McDaniel: Well – Mrs. Irwin: He got it. Mr. McDaniel: – now, I guess when you were growing up, I guess there was a lot of wildlife. I mean this was the woods, you know? Mrs. Irwin: We didn’t have coyotes. Mr. McDaniel: You didn’t have coyotes? Mrs. Irwin: No. We’ve just had them just a few year. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? So, you had agriculture, you had farms; I guess you probably had folks that had beef cattle, and things such as that, and pigs. Mrs. Irwin: Yes. We grew about everything we eat. Mr. McDaniel: Did you? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, we did. In the summer, we canned everything that we could for the winter. We had everything stored up for the winter, and even potatoes and apples. We had three orchards where we lived, and we’d keep apples nearly all winter. Mr. McDaniel: Now, do you eat peaches now, or did you have your fill of them when you were growing up? Mrs. Irwin: No, I still like peaches, but I can’t find a good one. Mr. McDaniel: Can’t find a good one, can you? Mrs. Irwin: No. Mr. McDaniel: My goodness. Well, they’re all shipped in from everywhere now. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: But I guess eating was pretty good back then, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Oh, I’ve never been hungry. Mr. McDaniel: Really? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Yeah, we had a table full three times a day. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. I can remember my mom was a real good cook. Mr. McDaniel: Was she? That was a different time then, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, it was. Mr. McDaniel: I mean you’d have a sit-down at the table three times a day and have a home-cooked meal. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. You can solve a lot of problems at the dinner table. Mr. McDaniel: Really? Mrs. Irwin: That’s your place, when you can talk things out. Mr. McDaniel: Sure. People don’t do that very much anymore, do they? Mrs. Irwin: No, they don’t. Mr. McDaniel: My goodness. All right, so you married right out of high school, and you and your husband moved over to where Heartland Estates is now. The government came along and kicked everybody out of Wheat. Was there any thought that you might go back at some point, that they might let you back in? Mrs. Irwin: Well, they said that if it ever got cleared away, that you could buy your place back, but I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think that’s – [clock chimes]
Mr. McDaniel: Right. We’ll let that chime chime eleven times. Mrs. Irwin: No, it won’t. Mr. McDaniel: It won’t? Mrs. Irwin: It’ll quit. Mr. McDaniel: It’ll quit? Okay. There you go. But, of course, that never happened, you never could go back. Mrs. Irwin: I know of one that got some of their land back. It’s up at Heartland Estates. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, really? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. He was a cousin of mine, and he got that, on the right side, on the right side of the road. Mr. McDaniel: Right. Mrs. Irwin: They came down to the road, but he got that back. Mr. McDaniel: Did he? Okay. So tell me about your life after that. Tell me about your life after you had to move out and after you got married. Mrs. Irwin: Well, that’s going back a long ways. Mr. McDaniel: That’s all right. That’s okay. We got time. Mrs. Irwin: My husband worked with TVA, and we was sent to Bristol for him to clear that land there and then we was sent to Parsons, Tennessee. Mr. McDaniel: Now, where’s Parsons? Mrs. Irwin: That’s about thirty mile from Jackson. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, okay. North or south of Jackson? Mrs. Irwin: South. Mr. McDaniel: South of Jackson. Okay. Right. Is there a dam there? I mean is there a dam at Parsons? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. Mr. McDaniel: Okay. So, you went there. Mrs. Irwin: We came back home, and he started to work at Oak Ridge, and he first started as a machinist, and he worked for Y-12 for a little while, and then he was transferred over to X-10, and he worked there until he retired, and he retired in ’81, and then he passed in ’86. Mr. McDaniel: ’86? What about your children? Mrs. Irwin: My children. Gene, my son, was a dentist. He was in Farragut, and he retired about six months ago. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, did he? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, and my daughter – Mr. McDaniel: Now, is she the youngest one? She’s the thirteen-years-later one? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah, thirteen years later. She works for Dr. Schubert. She’s a hygienist. Mr. McDaniel: Okay. Now, did you go to work or did you stay home and raise kids and took care of your husband and family? Mrs. Irwin: I stayed home and cooked and cleaned. I raised my babies. Mr. McDaniel: You had a harder job than anybody, didn’t you? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: I’m sure you did. Mrs. Irwin: But I enjoyed all of it. Mr. McDaniel: Now, how long have you been in this house? Mrs. Irwin: About fifty-two or -three years. Mr. McDaniel: So, when you came back from Parsons, did you move into this house? Mrs. Irwin: No. We went up Heartland Estates. My dad was still living, and we lived there for I guess about three year, and we bought this, we bought the land here and built the house. Mr. McDaniel: Now, how much land do you have here? Mrs. Irwin: Twenty-nine acres. Mr. McDaniel: So you still get out there and work it? Mrs. Irwin: I work in the garden. They can’t keep me out of the garden. Mr. McDaniel: I remember my grandmother, I guess she was about ninety or ninety-one, and she was still having her garden. This was back before people had cell phones, but she had that cordless phone. They finally made her put it in her apron in case she fell and couldn’t get up in the garden. Mrs. Irwin: I fell in the garden last summer. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, my goodness. You didn’t break anything, did you? Mrs. Irwin: I managed to get up. I broke my hip here in the kitchen about three year ago. Mr. McDaniel: What’d you do, just turn around and trip? Mrs. Irwin: I just fell. Mr. McDaniel: The exact same thing happened to my mother this spring. Went home from church Sunday afternoon, got something out of the refrigerator, and turned around and just fell and broke her hip. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: My mother will be eighty-three in November, I think, but – Mrs. Irwin: She’s young. [laughter] Mr. McDaniel: [laughter] She’s young. My dad passed away two years ago. He was ninety-one when he passed away. He was a machinist at the Steam Plant in Kingston. They moved to Kingston in ’56, the year before I was born. But anyway, so is there anything else you want to talk about? Mrs. Irwin: I can’t think of anything, any more than to say that I’ve had a good life. Mr. McDaniel: You’ve been real active in the church.
Mrs. Irwin: I am. Mr. McDaniel: And tell me about your homecomings. I know you’re real active in preserving some of the history of Wheat. Tell me a little bit about your book, your history that you wrote, and I know you’re active in having the homecomings every, what is it, October? Mrs. Irwin: October, the first Sunday in October. Mr. McDaniel: The first Sunday in October, and you have those up at the George Jones Church, right? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about that. Mrs. Irwin: We have never had to go outside of the Wheat community to get a speaker. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Mrs. Irwin: Well, there was two of them, preachers, that just kind of took it. Well, three, really, and then they all died, and I just kind of had to shift from one to the other. This year, our speaker’s going to be a Teripin from Knoxville. His mother and daddy lived in there, so we’re still – Mr. McDaniel: Still family, right? Mrs. Irwin: – we’re still family, and we like for as many to come, as well, especially our alumni. We love to see them each year. Mr. McDaniel: Well, how long are you going to be able to keep having your homecomings? Mrs. Irwin: I don’t know. This is about eighty years. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Eighty years. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: You need to get at least to a hundred, don’t you? [laughter]
Mrs. Irwin: I’d like to. Mr. McDaniel: Yeah. Mrs. Irwin: I’d like to. Maybe they will. Mr. McDaniel: Yeah, maybe they will. Mrs. Irwin: [laughter] I don’t think I’ll be around to see it. Mr. McDaniel: You never know. Mrs. Irwin: That’d be a miracle. But it’s interesting. We have a potluck dinner, and – Mr. McDaniel: And a good crowd, from what I understand, usually. Mrs. Irwin: We got congratulations from just about everywhere about five or six year ago. Mr. McDaniel: Right. That was on your 75th, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah, I think it was. Mr. McDaniel: I think it was your 75th reunion. Mrs. Irwin: From President Bush. He was invited. We invited the governor and him, too. The governor couldn’t come, but he sent a representative. Mr. McDaniel: Right. Mrs. Irwin: We just enjoy our homecomings. Mr. McDaniel: Sure. Tell me about the history of Wheat. What made you write that? Mrs. Irwin: Well, I just wanted to leave something for the next generation. Mr. McDaniel: You didn’t want Wheat to be forgotten, did you? Mrs. Irwin: No, I didn’t, and that’s what I titled it, Wheat Will Not Be Forgotten. Mr. McDaniel: Really? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. I loved that community. Mr. McDaniel: Are there very many of you original residents of Wheat left? Mrs. Irwin: No, not many. Mr. McDaniel: And are most of them in this area? Mrs. Irwin: No, they’re scattered everywhere. Mr. McDaniel: All right. Here’s your opportunity. This is going into the archive, it’ll be permanent; you got anything to say, to get off your chest, now’s the time to do it. Mrs. Irwin: Well, I can say that I miss Wheat. I miss our family. My family is all gone but me. And I miss my neighbors that I had. Mr. McDaniel: Sure. All right. Anything else you want to say, anything else you want to talk about? Mrs. Irwin: No, I can’t think of anything. I’ll probably think of something when you’re gone. Mr. McDaniel: Well, of course, that’s the way it always works. All right. Well, very good, then. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Mrs. Irwin: Well, I appreciate you. [end of recording]

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ORAL HISTORY OF BONITA IRWIN
Interviewed and filmed by Keith McDaniel
August 31, 2011
Mr. McDaniel: This is Keith McDaniel, and today is the last day of August, 2011, August 31st, 2011, and I am at the home of Bonita Irwin, and Miss Irwin, now what community is this? This isn’t Dyllis, is it? Mrs. Irwin: This is Dyllis. Mr. McDaniel: This is the Dyllis community, right outside of Oak Ridge, between Oak Ridge and Harriman. You’ve got a Harriman address, though, don’t you? Mrs. Irwin: Sugar Grove Valley. Mr. McDaniel: Sugar Grove Valley. Mrs. Irwin: A Harriman address. Mr. McDaniel: We’re out in the country, aren’t we? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, we are, and I love it. Mr. McDaniel: Well, good. Well, speaking of the country, let’s kind of go back to the very beginning of your story. Tell me where you were born and raised and went to school, and something about your family. Mrs. Irwin: I was born in the Wheat community, and raised in the Wheat community; went to school twelve years at Wheat High School and graduated there. Mr. McDaniel: Where was your home in the Wheat community? Where was it located? Mrs. Irwin: It was not too far from Bear Creek. Mr. McDaniel: And your mother and father, now how did they end up in Wheat? Mrs. Irwin: They used to live over Mount Pisgah, where the church is. Mr. McDaniel: Right, over near –
Mrs. Irwin: My grandfather owned five thousand acres in there – Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Mrs. Irwin: – and he gave that land there where Mount Pisgah Church is. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, really? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm. Mr. McDaniel: How did he end up with five thousand acres? Mrs. Irwin: I really don’t know. He must have inherited it somewhere. Mr. McDaniel: Sure. So your family, generations go back to this area, right? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. Mr. McDaniel: So, you grew up over in Wheat, and how many brothers and sisters did you have? Mrs. Irwin: I had one brother and two sisters. Mr. McDaniel: Now, tell us a little bit about Wheat at that time. I mean what was it like when you were a young person, in about, let’s say, what years would that be? Mrs. Irwin: Well, I was born in 1920, so that makes me ninety-one. Mr. McDaniel: Ninety-one, there you go. Mrs. Irwin: It was a happy place. I mean everyone got along good, and we had all conveniences that we felt like that we needed at that time. Mr. McDaniel: Now, about how many people lived in Wheat, or in that area? Mrs. Irwin: Well, it’s estimated around a thousand. Mr. McDaniel: Around a thousand? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: Wasn’t there some industry there, or what was the main industry in the area? Was it agricultural, was it farming? Mrs. Irwin: It was all farming. Mr. McDaniel: All farming? Mrs. Irwin: It was known for its peach orchards. We had six in that area. One of them had over three thousand trees – Mr. McDaniel: Wow. Mrs. Irwin: – and then the Dyllis peach orchard was larger than that one. Mr. McDaniel: I guess that was a small community – a thousand people – relatively small. I guess when it was peach harvest time, everybody went to work, didn’t they? Mrs. Irwin: Everybody went to work. Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about that. Can you remember the first time you worked in harvesting peaches? Mrs. Irwin: I really didn’t work a lot in the peaches. I always stayed home and done the cooking and the canning, and my father was the foreman over one orchard, and he hired his people to pick the peaches, and then they took them down to the shed and graded them. And it’s mostly women that graded the peaches. They got them in baskets and sent them by train from Dyllis. There was a shed up there that they took them to and they shipped them out by train. Mr. McDaniel: Did your father do that all year long, or did he do other things, like when it wasn’t peach time? Mrs. Irwin: Oh yes, he farmed, he run a big farm. Mr. McDaniel: Okay. Let’s continue on the peach story, though. But that didn’t last forever, because wasn’t there a big peach blight that kind of took out the orchards? Tell me a little bit about that. Wasn’t that in the ’30s? Mrs. Irwin: In the late ’30s. Mr. McDaniel: In the late ’30s, right. Mrs. Irwin: But there were still a few peaches left. Mr. McDaniel: Right, but this whole area, there were a lot of peach orchards in this area, wasn’t there? I know there were some over in Roane County and Kingston. Mrs. Irwin: There was Kingston.
Mr. McDaniel: So you grew up there on the farm in Wheat, about a thousand people, most of the folks were farmers. Was there any stores or businesses that you can remember? Tell me about that. Mrs. Irwin: Yes, we had three stores, and a post office, and a Masonic Hall. It has the Eastern Star, too. And then the college. Mr. McDaniel: We’ll talk about the college here in a minute, but there was a college there. Did you go to Knoxville when you were a young person? Did you ever go to Knoxville? Mrs. Irwin: Well, we went to Knoxville quite often. Of course, we had a T-Model, and it took us all day – Mr. McDaniel: To go to Knoxville and come back, I guess. Mrs. Irwin: – to go to Knoxville and shop a little and come back home. Mr. McDaniel: Now, how did you get there? What road did you take to Knoxville? Mrs. Irwin: Right up through Robertsville and up to Clinton, Clinton Highway. Mr. McDaniel: It was closer to go that way than it would be to go down to 70 and go up that way, I suppose. Mrs. Irwin: I suppose so. They always took near cuts.
Mr. McDaniel: Sure. Oh sure, of course. Well, tell me about school. Tell me about the school in Wheat. Mrs. Irwin: We had a good school. We had students that come there from after they built the dormitories. We had students that come there from out of state to get a good education. We had them, I know, from Virginia and Kentucky and Florida. Mr. McDaniel: Now, was this a public school, or was it a private school? Mrs. Irwin: It was a public school. Mr. McDaniel: It was a public school, but students would come in from out of state? Mrs. Irwin: The school buses ran, well, the school buses ran all the way down this way and down Sugar Grove Valley, Bethel Valley, and East Fork Valley, and brought students in. Mr. McDaniel: So, the school was for this area. Mrs. Irwin: Yes, it was. Mr. McDaniel: I mean for the Wheat, and just the country right around Wheat here. I guess up in Robertsville and those areas that is now Oak Ridge, they had their own school systems. Mrs. Irwin: They did. They was our rivals in basketball. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, that was the big rivals in basketball, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, it was. Mr. McDaniel: So, what did you do in school? I mean what were your favorite subjects, and do you remember any teachers or principals specifically? Mrs. Irwin: Oh, yes. We had geometry, and English, of course, language, and home economics. Well, anything that a school offers, we had it. Mr. McDaniel: Sure. Why was it so good?
Mrs. Irwin: We had good teachers. Mr. McDaniel: And why did it attract good teachers? Did somebody actively go out and find good teachers, or did it just have a reputation? Mrs. Irwin: Well, I guess it had a reputation, and some of the teachers lived there in the community, too. Mr. McDaniel: And so this was, I guess, first grade through high school.
Mrs. Irwin: Yes, it was. Mr. McDaniel: About how many students were there? Mrs. Irwin: I’d say around three hundred. Mr. McDaniel: That’s what I would think, about three hundred or so. Mrs. Irwin: I can think of the lunchroom, how many they had, and so on. That’s was the elementary and high school together. Mr. McDaniel: Where did you go to church? Mrs. Irwin: I went to church at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Wheat. Mr. McDaniel: Where was that located? Mrs. Irwin: It was located – there’s a monument where it was located, where they made the road to Lenoir City and it’s up on the left as you go – Mr. McDaniel: You’re coming from Oak Ridge and you curve around, that monument is right there on your left, isn’t it, like if you curve around to go towards Lenoir City, that monument’s on the left. Mrs. Irwin: Yes, it is, and the church actually sat where the road is. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, okay. I see. Now, were there other churches? Mrs. Irwin: There was George Jones church that still stands, and the Methodist church burned, and they took Sunday about with the Presbyterian church so they could use the building. Mr. McDaniel: So, this was in the 1920s, 1930s, when you were growing up in Wheat, going to school, people were active, the peach business was still pretty good, and so I guess it was, I mean a lot of people say, “Well, I didn’t know I was poor,” you know, “We were poor, but I didn’t know it.” You know, did you have everything you needed? Mrs. Irwin: That’s right, everybody was about on the same level and we enjoyed living there. It was a good community. It was known as the model community. Mr. McDaniel: Now, oftentimes, in little communities like that, you’ll have one or two land barons or tycoons or people that have a lot of money. Did you have any folks like that in Wheat? Mrs. Irwin: If we did, they didn’t show it. [laughter]
Mr. McDaniel: [laughter] Oh, I see. Okay. All right. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: Talk a little bit about the college. Tell me something about the college. When did it come, and what was it about? Mrs. Irwin: Well, the college came there in 1886. It was a forerunner of the seminary, and then the first school over there was Robertson School, and they had a textbook and the Bible. That’s what they taught, and they taught it by – they called it ‘aloud school’ because they taught it orally, you know? Mr. McDaniel: Right. Mrs. Irwin: And then, the seminary, and it was the forerunner of Roane College. Mr. McDaniel: So, there was the Robertson School, and then the seminary? Mrs. Irwin: Uh-huhn. Mr. McDaniel: Now, where was that located? Mrs. Irwin: The college? It was up on the hill from the George Jones Baptist Church that’s still standing. Mr. McDaniel: Right. It was up past it, if you were going towards it from Blair Road. Mrs. Irwin: It was. Mr. McDaniel: It was back up in that direction. Mrs. Irwin: It was on the hill, and they carried the water for the college from the spring. That spring is still there.
Mr. McDaniel: Now, how many students were there, and were these students that – did they have dormitories? They came and lived there? Mrs. Irwin: They batched or they lived with families, you know, and my dad went to college there. Mr. McDaniel: So, it was Robertson School, then it was a seminary, and then it turned into Roane College, is that correct? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm. Mr. McDaniel: What was the difference? Did it just become not a church school anymore and then just a general college? Mrs. Irwin: General college. Mr. McDaniel: How long did it stay there? Mrs. Irwin: It stayed there from 1886 until 1908, and at that time, Roane County had taken over the land and they built the Wheat High School at that time, but they continued to have classes at the Roane College until 1916. Mr. McDaniel: Okay. Did it just dwindle down? I mean, is that what happened? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. But I can remember the reunions when I was just a child. They’d come from everywhere back to the homecomings, and I have pictures of the homecomings, and so on. Mr. McDaniel: Okay, so you graduated high school. What year did you graduate high school? Mrs. Irwin: 1940. Mr. McDaniel: Okay, so you were still living at home, I imagine.
Mrs. Irwin: I was. Mr. McDaniel: And then 1942 rolled around, and they came and said, “You gotta get out.” Mrs. Irwin: Yes, get up and go. Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about that. Mrs. Irwin: It was bad. It was bad, because they didn’t give us very much time. Mr. McDaniel: Do you remember about when you got the notice? Late fall, wasn’t it? Maybe around Thanksgiving, maybe November, or something like that? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm. It made it awful hard on people, and at that time, gas was rationed and it made it awful hard on people that didn’t have a way to get somewhere to try to find somewhere to live. Mr. McDaniel: Sure and, obviously, the government came in for the Manhattan Project and took the land. Now, how much land did you all have, and tell me about your house, and any outbuildings and things such as that, that you had to just leave? Mrs. Irwin: I don’t know exactly how much land there was but a good size farm. Mr. McDaniel: It had barns, I’m sure you had a barn, and outbuildings, and things such as that. Mrs. Irwin: Chicken houses. Mr. McDaniel: Right, and your house, tell me about it, the house that you grew up in, you had to leave. Mrs. Irwin: It was a very nice house. We had three bedrooms, and a kitchen and dining room and it was a fairly nice house. Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about the reaction that not only your parents had, specifically, but tell me kind of the reaction of the community when this happened. Mrs. Irwin: They was devastated, didn’t know which way to go, but everybody kind of settled down and they had a banquet, the last banquet that they had. The speaker was David Lilienthal, and he talked about Wheat being a good community, and so on, and then the Knoxville Journal at the same banquet, he talked about Wheat, and the New York Times gave an article on Wheat. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Now, when was this banquet? Was this before you left? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. Mr. McDaniel: Okay, so it was kind of a community banquet before everybody had to leave? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: How much did your father get for his house and property?
Mrs. Irwin: [laughter] Now, I know, where I was born, and we still owned that – Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right? Mrs. Irwin: – yeah, but we had moved to a larger farm because there wasn’t enough farming land there to support his family, and where I was born, he had thirty-five acres of just trucking land and some of it was in beautiful pines. And he had a house; a doctor used to live there. He had a good house, and it had a little office building out from it, and then it had a well house and a barn. He got eight hundred dollars for it. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Mrs. Irwin: That’s right. Mr. McDaniel: Even back then, that wasn’t much. Mrs. Irwin: They robbed us. They robbed us. Mr. McDaniel: My goodness. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: There was nothing you could do, was there? Mrs. Irwin: That wasn’t enough to buy another place, so we moved up where Heartland Estates is now, at that farmhouse there, and he farmed that. Of course, I was married at that time. Mr. McDaniel: When did you get married? Mrs. Irwin: I got married in 1940 right after I graduated. Mr. McDaniel: Right after you graduated. Was it a local boy? Mrs. Irwin: Oh, yes. He had had to move from Norris when they built the dam up there. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, my. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: So, there were a number of families that has moved from Norris just six years earlier down in this area, and then it hit them again. Mrs. Irwin: Right. There was a lot of them in our community. Mr. McDaniel: I imagine that would kind of make you distrustful of the government, wouldn’t it? [laughter] Mrs. Irwin: [laughter] Yeah, it would. It would. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, man. So, what did they tell you about why they needed your property? Mrs. Irwin: They didn’t tell us anything. I mean it was top secret. The government just needed it for a war purpose. Mr. McDaniel: And that was it? Mrs. Irwin: That was it. Mr. McDaniel: If you felt like you weren’t getting enough money for your property, was there anything you could do? Mrs. Irwin: Well, there was some that sued, but they didn’t do any good. Mr. McDaniel: Right. It was probably more trouble than what it was worth. Mrs. Irwin: So my dad just left it alone. Mr. McDaniel: Did he ever get over it? Mrs. Irwin: No. No. My mother had died in ’35. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, I was fourteen when she died. And at Wheat High School, we had a good sports program – football and basketball – and I played basketball. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, did you? Mrs. Irwin: I loved it. Mr. McDaniel: Did you? Mrs. Irwin: I loved it. I still do. Mr. McDaniel: Did you go to college or take any college – Mrs. Irwin: No, I didn’t. Mr. McDaniel: – courses after – you got married? Mrs. Irwin: I got married. Mr. McDaniel: You got married, and started having a family, I imagine. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah, I had a son, and thirteen years later I had a daughter. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, is that right? Okay, there you go. Now, what did your husband do? Mrs. Irwin: He was with the Physics Department at Oak Ridge. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, was he? Mrs. Irwin: ORNL. Mr. McDaniel: But he wasn’t doing that when you got married? Mrs. Irwin: No. No, he was working with TVA at that time. He was a foreman with the TVA when they was clearing land for the dams. Mr. McDaniel: Interesting. I’m doing a project right now on Granger County’s history, and they came in and put in Cherokee Dam in 1940, and flooded so much, and those people up there are still mad about it. Mrs. Irwin: I can imagine.
Mr. McDaniel: You know, it was their ancestral homes – Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Absolutely. Mr. McDaniel: – and it’s kind of the same way with Wheat, you know? Mrs. Irwin: But they did pay for their land. Mr. McDaniel: Right. I asked you if your father ever got over it; did you ever get over it? Mrs. Irwin: No. Mr. McDaniel: No? Mrs. Irwin: I’m not over it yet. Mr. McDaniel: Are you not? Mrs. Irwin: No. Mr. McDaniel: You just felt it was wrong, huhn? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, I did. Well, now, we was willing if it would help in the war effort and to bring our boys back home. We had a hundred and fifty-seven boys out of our community to go. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Mrs. Irwin: Nine of them lost their lives. Mr. McDaniel: Really, a hundred and fifty-seven out of your community? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm. Mr. McDaniel: My goodness. Mrs. Irwin: Yes. Mr. McDaniel: Well, I guess it was a bittersweet opportunity then, I guess. Mrs. Irwin: It was. Mr. McDaniel: Yeah. So, oh my goodness. Well, tell me more about Wheat. Mrs. Irwin: When they got a chance to come home, they didn’t have a home to come to. Mr. McDaniel: I guess not. Mrs. Irwin: I mean, that was bad, too. Mr. McDaniel: Yeah. Well, tell me more about Wheat. Tell me about things that I’ve not asked about that you want to talk about. Mrs. Irwin: Well, we always had good neighbors. We’d gather in – my dad made a goal for us and put it on the side of the barn to shoot basketball, and we’d have groups to come in and play, and late in the afternoon, a lot of times, our neighbors would gather in and we’d play till all hours. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Play till dark, huhn? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah, and then we always went swimming together. Mr. McDaniel: Where’d you go swimming? Mrs. Irwin: In East Fork Creek. [laughter] Mr. McDaniel: In East Fork Creek? Okay. That was back when you could swim in these waters, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Oh yeah. Yeah, I wouldn’t dare now. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, my. Mrs. Irwin: Where we lived, the Indians used to be in here, you know? And there was a little knoll down at the end, just before you’d get down to the creek, and we’d find arrowheads in there. Mr. McDaniel: Really? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm, and that’s where Bear Creek and East Fork Creek runs together. Mr. McDaniel: Okay. All right. So, I guess when you were a kid, this whole area was your playground, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Oh, yeah. Mr. McDaniel: You’d play out in the woods and just – Mrs. Irwin: Yeah, you’d be afraid of coyotes now. Mr. McDaniel: Oh yeah, that’s true. That’s true. My goodness. Did you hear about that bear in Oak Ridge this week? There was a bear, a little baby bear – Mrs. Irwin: I did. Mr. McDaniel: – got hit on the Turnpike. Mrs. Irwin: Well, there was three coyotes right up here, just past this cornfield, the other day. My neighbor shot one of them. Mr. McDaniel: Did he? Mrs. Irwin: Mhm. Mr. McDaniel: Well – Mrs. Irwin: He got it. Mr. McDaniel: – now, I guess when you were growing up, I guess there was a lot of wildlife. I mean this was the woods, you know? Mrs. Irwin: We didn’t have coyotes. Mr. McDaniel: You didn’t have coyotes? Mrs. Irwin: No. We’ve just had them just a few year. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? So, you had agriculture, you had farms; I guess you probably had folks that had beef cattle, and things such as that, and pigs. Mrs. Irwin: Yes. We grew about everything we eat. Mr. McDaniel: Did you? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, we did. In the summer, we canned everything that we could for the winter. We had everything stored up for the winter, and even potatoes and apples. We had three orchards where we lived, and we’d keep apples nearly all winter. Mr. McDaniel: Now, do you eat peaches now, or did you have your fill of them when you were growing up? Mrs. Irwin: No, I still like peaches, but I can’t find a good one. Mr. McDaniel: Can’t find a good one, can you? Mrs. Irwin: No. Mr. McDaniel: My goodness. Well, they’re all shipped in from everywhere now. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: But I guess eating was pretty good back then, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Oh, I’ve never been hungry. Mr. McDaniel: Really? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Yeah, we had a table full three times a day. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. I can remember my mom was a real good cook. Mr. McDaniel: Was she? That was a different time then, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, it was. Mr. McDaniel: I mean you’d have a sit-down at the table three times a day and have a home-cooked meal. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. You can solve a lot of problems at the dinner table. Mr. McDaniel: Really? Mrs. Irwin: That’s your place, when you can talk things out. Mr. McDaniel: Sure. People don’t do that very much anymore, do they? Mrs. Irwin: No, they don’t. Mr. McDaniel: My goodness. All right, so you married right out of high school, and you and your husband moved over to where Heartland Estates is now. The government came along and kicked everybody out of Wheat. Was there any thought that you might go back at some point, that they might let you back in? Mrs. Irwin: Well, they said that if it ever got cleared away, that you could buy your place back, but I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think that’s – [clock chimes]
Mr. McDaniel: Right. We’ll let that chime chime eleven times. Mrs. Irwin: No, it won’t. Mr. McDaniel: It won’t? Mrs. Irwin: It’ll quit. Mr. McDaniel: It’ll quit? Okay. There you go. But, of course, that never happened, you never could go back. Mrs. Irwin: I know of one that got some of their land back. It’s up at Heartland Estates. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, really? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. He was a cousin of mine, and he got that, on the right side, on the right side of the road. Mr. McDaniel: Right. Mrs. Irwin: They came down to the road, but he got that back. Mr. McDaniel: Did he? Okay. So tell me about your life after that. Tell me about your life after you had to move out and after you got married. Mrs. Irwin: Well, that’s going back a long ways. Mr. McDaniel: That’s all right. That’s okay. We got time. Mrs. Irwin: My husband worked with TVA, and we was sent to Bristol for him to clear that land there and then we was sent to Parsons, Tennessee. Mr. McDaniel: Now, where’s Parsons? Mrs. Irwin: That’s about thirty mile from Jackson. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, okay. North or south of Jackson? Mrs. Irwin: South. Mr. McDaniel: South of Jackson. Okay. Right. Is there a dam there? I mean is there a dam at Parsons? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. Mr. McDaniel: Okay. So, you went there. Mrs. Irwin: We came back home, and he started to work at Oak Ridge, and he first started as a machinist, and he worked for Y-12 for a little while, and then he was transferred over to X-10, and he worked there until he retired, and he retired in ’81, and then he passed in ’86. Mr. McDaniel: ’86? What about your children? Mrs. Irwin: My children. Gene, my son, was a dentist. He was in Farragut, and he retired about six months ago. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, did he? Mrs. Irwin: Yes, and my daughter – Mr. McDaniel: Now, is she the youngest one? She’s the thirteen-years-later one? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah, thirteen years later. She works for Dr. Schubert. She’s a hygienist. Mr. McDaniel: Okay. Now, did you go to work or did you stay home and raise kids and took care of your husband and family? Mrs. Irwin: I stayed home and cooked and cleaned. I raised my babies. Mr. McDaniel: You had a harder job than anybody, didn’t you? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: I’m sure you did. Mrs. Irwin: But I enjoyed all of it. Mr. McDaniel: Now, how long have you been in this house? Mrs. Irwin: About fifty-two or -three years. Mr. McDaniel: So, when you came back from Parsons, did you move into this house? Mrs. Irwin: No. We went up Heartland Estates. My dad was still living, and we lived there for I guess about three year, and we bought this, we bought the land here and built the house. Mr. McDaniel: Now, how much land do you have here? Mrs. Irwin: Twenty-nine acres. Mr. McDaniel: So you still get out there and work it? Mrs. Irwin: I work in the garden. They can’t keep me out of the garden. Mr. McDaniel: I remember my grandmother, I guess she was about ninety or ninety-one, and she was still having her garden. This was back before people had cell phones, but she had that cordless phone. They finally made her put it in her apron in case she fell and couldn’t get up in the garden. Mrs. Irwin: I fell in the garden last summer. Mr. McDaniel: Oh, my goodness. You didn’t break anything, did you? Mrs. Irwin: I managed to get up. I broke my hip here in the kitchen about three year ago. Mr. McDaniel: What’d you do, just turn around and trip? Mrs. Irwin: I just fell. Mr. McDaniel: The exact same thing happened to my mother this spring. Went home from church Sunday afternoon, got something out of the refrigerator, and turned around and just fell and broke her hip. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: My mother will be eighty-three in November, I think, but – Mrs. Irwin: She’s young. [laughter] Mr. McDaniel: [laughter] She’s young. My dad passed away two years ago. He was ninety-one when he passed away. He was a machinist at the Steam Plant in Kingston. They moved to Kingston in ’56, the year before I was born. But anyway, so is there anything else you want to talk about? Mrs. Irwin: I can’t think of anything, any more than to say that I’ve had a good life. Mr. McDaniel: You’ve been real active in the church.
Mrs. Irwin: I am. Mr. McDaniel: And tell me about your homecomings. I know you’re real active in preserving some of the history of Wheat. Tell me a little bit about your book, your history that you wrote, and I know you’re active in having the homecomings every, what is it, October? Mrs. Irwin: October, the first Sunday in October. Mr. McDaniel: The first Sunday in October, and you have those up at the George Jones Church, right? Mrs. Irwin: Yes. Mr. McDaniel: Tell me about that. Mrs. Irwin: We have never had to go outside of the Wheat community to get a speaker. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Mrs. Irwin: Well, there was two of them, preachers, that just kind of took it. Well, three, really, and then they all died, and I just kind of had to shift from one to the other. This year, our speaker’s going to be a Teripin from Knoxville. His mother and daddy lived in there, so we’re still – Mr. McDaniel: Still family, right? Mrs. Irwin: – we’re still family, and we like for as many to come, as well, especially our alumni. We love to see them each year. Mr. McDaniel: Well, how long are you going to be able to keep having your homecomings? Mrs. Irwin: I don’t know. This is about eighty years. Mr. McDaniel: Is that right? Eighty years. Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. Mr. McDaniel: You need to get at least to a hundred, don’t you? [laughter]
Mrs. Irwin: I’d like to. Mr. McDaniel: Yeah. Mrs. Irwin: I’d like to. Maybe they will. Mr. McDaniel: Yeah, maybe they will. Mrs. Irwin: [laughter] I don’t think I’ll be around to see it. Mr. McDaniel: You never know. Mrs. Irwin: That’d be a miracle. But it’s interesting. We have a potluck dinner, and – Mr. McDaniel: And a good crowd, from what I understand, usually. Mrs. Irwin: We got congratulations from just about everywhere about five or six year ago. Mr. McDaniel: Right. That was on your 75th, wasn’t it? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah, I think it was. Mr. McDaniel: I think it was your 75th reunion. Mrs. Irwin: From President Bush. He was invited. We invited the governor and him, too. The governor couldn’t come, but he sent a representative. Mr. McDaniel: Right. Mrs. Irwin: We just enjoy our homecomings. Mr. McDaniel: Sure. Tell me about the history of Wheat. What made you write that? Mrs. Irwin: Well, I just wanted to leave something for the next generation. Mr. McDaniel: You didn’t want Wheat to be forgotten, did you? Mrs. Irwin: No, I didn’t, and that’s what I titled it, Wheat Will Not Be Forgotten. Mr. McDaniel: Really? Mrs. Irwin: Yeah. I loved that community. Mr. McDaniel: Are there very many of you original residents of Wheat left? Mrs. Irwin: No, not many. Mr. McDaniel: And are most of them in this area? Mrs. Irwin: No, they’re scattered everywhere. Mr. McDaniel: All right. Here’s your opportunity. This is going into the archive, it’ll be permanent; you got anything to say, to get off your chest, now’s the time to do it. Mrs. Irwin: Well, I can say that I miss Wheat. I miss our family. My family is all gone but me. And I miss my neighbors that I had. Mr. McDaniel: Sure. All right. Anything else you want to say, anything else you want to talk about? Mrs. Irwin: No, I can’t think of anything. I’ll probably think of something when you’re gone. Mr. McDaniel: Well, of course, that’s the way it always works. All right. Well, very good, then. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Mrs. Irwin: Well, I appreciate you. [end of recording]